Natasha beats Rutuja to enter quarters

It's been a good month for Natasha Palha. After making the final of her maiden ITF women's tournament a fortnight back, the 18-year-old reached the quarterfinals of the Gail $10000 ITF meet at the DLTA Complex.

It's been a good month for Natasha Palha. After making the final of her maiden ITF women's tournament a fortnight back, the 18-year-old reached the quarterfinals of the Gail $10000 ITF meet at the DLTA Complex.

Natasha, who doesn't have an ITF ranking, outplayed the third seed and national champion Rutuja Bhosale to set up a quarterfinal date with Prarthana Thombare.

Winning the first set 6-4, Palha found herself down 3-5 in the second due to unforced errors. However, she collected herself and took the set to tie-break. At 6-3 up, instead of closing out the match, Natasha had to wait for Rutuja to hit a forehand long to pump her fists in joy.

Pei-Chi Lee of Chinese Taipei was beaten by Eetee Maheta, who won 4-6, 6-0, 6-2.

Meanwhile, top-seed Kyra Shroff gave a walkover to Ho Ching Wu and seventh-seeded Ratnika Batra concede her second round match to Thombare when 0-2 down.